NAME

vtwm - Virtual Tab Window Manager for the X Window System

SYNTAX

vtwm [-d display] [-f [initfile]] [-m [options]] [-p] [-s] [-v] [-V]

DESCRIPTION

vtwm is a window manager for the X Window System. It provides titlebars, shaped windows, several forms of icon management, user-defined macro functions, click-to-type and pointer-driven keyboard focus, and user-specified key and pointer button bindings.

This program is usually started by the user's session manager or startup script. When used from xdm(1) or xinit(1) without a session manager, vtwm is frequently executed in the foreground as the last client. When run this way, exiting vtwm causes the session to be terminated (i.e., logged out).

By default, application windows are surrounded by a border with a titlebar at the top. The titlebar contains the window's name, a rectangular area that indicates when the window is receiving keyboard input, and three function boxes known as "titlebar buttons". Pressing pointer Button1 (usually the left-most button unless it has been changed with xmodmap(1)) on any of these titlebar features will invoke the function associated with them.

With the default interface, windows are iconified by clicking (pressing and then immediately releasing) the titlebar button that looks like a dot. Conversely, windows are deiconified by clicking in the associated icon or entry in the icon manager (see the descriptions of the variable ShowIconManager and the function f.showiconmgr in the BINDINGS section).

Windows are resized by pressing the titlebar button that resembles a group of nested squares, dragging the pointer over the edge that is to be moved, and releasing the pointer when the window is the desired size. Similarly, windows are moved by pressing in the title or highlight area, dragging it to the new location, and then releasing when the window is in the desired position. Just clicking in the title or highlight area raises the window without moving it.

Pressing the titlebar button with the down arrow in it brings up a menu with many other functions that may be applied to the window.

When new windows are created, vtwm will honor any size and location information requested by the user (usually through -geometry command line argument or X11 resources for the individual applications). With the default configuration, Clicking pointer Button1 will position the window at the current position and give it the default size. Pressing pointer Button2 (usually the middle pointer button) and dragging the window will give the window its current position but allow the sides to be resized as described above. Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer button) will give the window its current position but attempt to make it long enough to touch the bottom of the screen.

The default behavior during these operations is to represent the window with an outline of the client window and its titlebar, lines crossing within the client window. Alternatively, vtwm may be configured to draw the window completely, but it is not recommended unless yours is a fast system.  

THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP

To provide a consistent workspace, the option is provided of nailing windows onto the real screen. When a window is nailed, it is considered stuck to the real screen no matter what part of the desktop is currently being displayed.

Normally, a few standard utilities are nailed down: the icon manager, the desktop view, a load average chart, a clock, and a mail notifier. The f.nail (or its alias, f.stick) function can be used to change the nailed status of any window; see the BINDINGS section for details.

The root window of the display is unchanged by this program and utilities such as xsetroot(1) will continue to work unmodified.  

OPTIONS

-d display

This option specifies the X server to use.

-f [initfile]

This option specifies the name of the startup file to use. By default, vtwm will look in the user's home directory for files named .vtwmrc.N, .vtwmrc, .twmrc.N, or .twmrc (where 'N' is a screen number). It also looks for system-wide default files; see the CUSTOMIZATION section below for details. If initfile is not provided, this specifies that vtwm should disregard any startup files it finds, and use only the defaults that are compiled in (intended for testing compiled-in defaults).

-m [options]

This option causes vtwm to preprocess the startup file using the m4(1) macro processor. The options will be passed verbatim to m4 along with those symbols that vtwm declares. Note that options itself should be quoted, to prevent unwanted processing that may occur by the shell, etc.

-p

This option indicates that vtwm should attempt to write it's PID to $HOME/vtwm.pid on startup, and delete that file on shutdown. This file may be useful as a lock file, or for determining the correct vtwm process for a particular user. If the file cannot be written on startup, a bell will sound, but vtwm will continue.

-s

This option indicates that only the default screen (as specified by the -d option or by the DISPLAY environment variable) should be managed. By default, vtwm will attempt to manage all screens on the display.

-v

This option indicates that vtwm should print messages to the stderr device when an unexpected event occurs. This can be be useful for debugging applications, but may be distracting in regular use.

-V

Show the version string and exit.

CUSTOMIZATION

Much of vtwm's appearance and behavior can be controlled by providing a startup file in one of the following locations (searched in order for each screen being managed when vtwm begins):

$HOME/.vtwmrc.screennumber

The screennumber is a small positive number (e.g., 0, 1, etc.) representing the screen number (e.g., the last number in the DISPLAY environment variable host:displaynum.screennum) that would be used to contact that screen of the display. This is intended for displays with multiple screens of differing visual types.

$HOME/.vtwmrc

This is the usual name for an individual user's startup file.

$VTWMDIR/twm/system.vtwmrc

If neither of the preceding files are found, vtwm will look in this file for a default configuration. Note that the variable is defined only in the Makefile, and is often set and tailored by the site administrator to provide convenient menus or familiar bindings for novice users.

$HOME/.twmrc.screennumber

$HOME/.twmrc

$VTWMDIR/twm/system.twmrc

When none of the .vtwmrc files can be found, vtwm reverts to acting like twm(1), and searches for these three .twmrc variants. Note that the variable is defined only in the Makefile.

This search algorithm allows both twm(1) and vtwm to coexist peacefully at an installation. Since vtwm is a superset of twm(1), it can even used to replace the latter, and users who have only a .twmrc-style file should not notice much difference.

If no startup files are found, or if vtwm is told to ignore them, vtwm will use built-in defaults as described in the DESCRIPTION section above, though the system.vtwmrc file, if re-configured before the build, may intervene. The only X11 resource used by vtwm is bitmapFilePath for a colon-separated list of directories to search when looking for bitmap and pixmap files (for more information, see the Athena Widgets manual and xrdb(1)).

vtwm startup files are logically broken up into three types of specifications: Variables, Bindings, Menus.

The Variables section must come first and is used to describe the fonts, colors, cursors, border widths, icon and window placement, highlighting, autoraising, layout of titles, warping, and use of the icon manager.

The Bindings section usually comes second and is used to specify the functions that should be to be invoked when keyboard and pointer buttons are pressed in windows, icons, titles, and frames.

The Menus section gives any user-defined menus (containing functions to be invoked or commands to be executed).

Variable names and keywords are case-insensitive. Strings must be surrounded by double quote characters (e.g., "blue") and are case-sensitive. A sharp sign ('#') outside of a string causes the remainder of the line in which the character appears to be treated as a comment.  

M4 PREPROCESSING

A powerful feature of vtwm as of version 5.4.6 is that it can use m4(1) to pre-process it's startup files. When vtwm is started with -m, it will open a file for input as described above, but will process that file through m4 before parsing it. So, you can use m4 macros to perform operations at runtime. This makes it very easy to work when you use many different displays, etc. For example, if you want to set the lower right section of the screen to be your IconRegion, you can use m4 directives and pre-defined symbols to calculate the region you want:

define(IRegion, translit(eval(WIDTH/3)*eval(HEIGHT/2)+eval(WIDTH-WIDTH/3)-0, *, x))
IconRegion  "IRegion" SOUTH EAST 75 25

SERVERHOST

This variable is set to the name of the machine that is running the X server.

CLIENTHOST

The machine that is running the X clients (i.e., "vtwm", "xterm", etc.).

HOSTNAME

The canonical hostname running the clients (i.e., a fully-qualified version of CLIENTHOST).

USER

The name of the user running the program. Gotten from the environment.

HOME

The user's home directory. Gotten from the environment.

VERSION

The X major protocol version. As seen by ProtocolVersion().

REVISION

The X minor protocol revision. As seen by ProtocolRevision().

VENDOR

The vendor of your X server (i.e., "MIT X Consortium").

RELEASE

The release number of your X server. For MIT X11R5, this is "5".

WIDTH

The width of your display in pixels.

HEIGHT

The height of your display in pixels.

X_RESOLUTION

The X resolution of your display in pixels per meter.

Y_RESOLUTION

The Y resolution of your display in pixels per meter.

PLANES

The number of bit planes your display supports in the default root window.

BITS_PER_RGB

The number of significant bits in an RGB color. (log base 2 of the number of distinct colors that can be created. This is often different from the number of colors that can be displayed at once.)

TWM_TYPE

Tells which twm derivative is running. It will always be set to "vtwm" in this program. This is useful for protecting parts of your startup file that twm proper won't understand (like VirtualDesktop) so that it is still usable with other twm-based programs.

CLASS

Your visual class. Will return one of "StaticGray", "GrayScale", "StaticColor", "PseudoColor", "TrueColor", "DirectColor", or, if it cannot determine what you have, "NonStandard".

COLOR

This will be either "Yes" or "No". This is just a wrapper around the above definition. Returns "Yes" on "*Color", and "No" on "StaticGray" and "GrayScale".

I18N

This will be either "Yes" or "No" depending on whether support for internationalization has been compiled in.

XPM

This will be either "Yes" or "No" depending on whether support for pixmap image files has been compiled in.

SOUND

This will be either "Yes" or "No" depending on whether support for sound has been compiled in.

REGEX

This will be either "Yes" or "No" depending on whether support for regular expressions ("RE"s) has been compiled in.

Note that any symbols passed to m4 on the command line that conflict with these will not be anticipated or dealt with by vtwm; you will be at the mercy of your particular m4.

Note also that if vtwm's preparation for executing m4 fails, the startup file will be processed normally, and will choke on the first m4 macro encountered.

Finally, be aware that m4 preprocessing can cause things often found in startup files to break. For example, quotes and backquotes in shell commands will be badly messed up by m4's own internal quoting mechanism. This particular problem can be worked around by placing changequote(,) at the top of your startup file.

Invoking vtwm with both the -m and -v options will print the m4 command with all symbols expanded.  

VARIABLES

Many of the aspects of vtwm's user interface are controlled by variables that may be set in the user's startup file. Some of the options are enabled or disabled simply by the presence of a particular keyword. Other options require keywords, numbers, strings, or lists of all of these.

Lists are surrounded by braces and are usually separated by whitespace or a newline. For example:

AutoRaise { "emacs" "VTWM*" "x*clock" "Xmh" "XTerm" }

AutoRaise
{
    "emacs"
    "VTWM*"
    "x*clock"
    "Xmh"
    "XTerm"
}
    

When a variable containing a list of strings representing windows is searched (e.g., to determine whether or not to enable autoraise as shown above), a string must be a case-sensitive match to the window's name (given by the WM_NAME window property), or the class name or class class (both given by the WM_CLASS window property). The preceding example would enable autoraise on windows named "emacs", all vtwm-specific windows, any clocks installed whose name starts with an 'x' (asclock will not autoraise), and all xmh and xterm windows (which are of class "XTerm" and "Xmh", respectively). See the WILDCARDS section for details on what the asterisks ('*') mean.

String arguments that are interpreted as filenames (see the Pixmaps, Cursors, and IconDirectory variables below) will prepend the user's directory (specified by the HOME environment variable) if the first character is a tilde ('~'). If, instead, the first character is a colon (':'), the name is assumed to refer to one of the internal bitmaps that are used to create 2D titlebar buttons, the 2D icon manager button, and the 2D menu pull-right icon. Finally, if the first five characters are ":xpm:", the name is assumed to refer to one of the built-in pixmaps that can used to create 3D titlebar buttons, the 3D icon manager button, and the 3D menu pull-right icon. See the IMAGE AND AUDIO FORMATS section for further details.

The following variables may be specified in the vtwm startup file. Lists of window names are indicated by win-list, and optional arguments are shown in square brackets. Any default values are based on the distributed system.vtwmrc files, and if none is mentioned, the default setting is "off", "disabled", or "none".

AppletRegion geomstr vgrav hgrav hgrid vgrid { win-list }

This variable specifies an area on the root window in which the windows listed in win-list are placed. The geomstr is a quoted string containing a standard geometry specification for the region size and location. If more than one AppletRegion is specified, windows will be put into succeeding regions that have the window listed when the first is full. The vgrav argument should be either North or South and is used to control whether windows are first filled in from the top or bottom of the region. Similarly, the hgrav argument should be either East or West and is used to control whether windows should be filled in from the left or right. Windows are laid out in a grid with cells hgrid pixels wide and vgrid pixels high. Note that the smallest dimension of the region must be at least the size of the largest window in it, including frame and titlebar, in the same direction. This variable is intended to simplify management of all those little tool applications like xcb(1), xbiff(1), xload(1), etc. that are used regularly.

AutoPan N

This variable allows the screen to automatically pan by N% of a real screen when the pointer approaches the edge of the screen. The pan will be in the direction of the edge approached. The default is 100, effectively "paging" across the virtual desktop.

AutoPanBorderWidth pixels

If AutoPan is turned on, when the pointer goes within the specified number of pixels of the real screen's border, the screen is panned. The default value is 5.

AutoPanExtraWarp pixels

If AutoPan is turned on and NaturalAutopanBehavior turned off, this variable specifies how far, in pixels, you want the pointer to move away from the inner edge of the autopan border when autopanning. The default value is 2 pixels.

AutoPanWarpWithRespectToRealScreen N

With this option turned on, the pointer is warped by N% as many pixels on the real screen as the screen is scrolled, or by

(AutoPanBorderWidth + AutoPanExtraWarp)

pixels, whichever is greater. See NaturalAutopanBehavior for a more thorough discussion of this and some recommended settings.

AutoRaise [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if win-list is omitted) to be automatically raised whenever the pointer has come to rest in a window for the amount of time specified by the RaiseDelay variable. This action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual windows using the function f.autoraise.

AutoRaiseDelay milliseconds

A synonym for RaiseDelay.

AutoRelativeResize

This variable indicates that dragging out a window size (either when initially sizing the window with pointer Button2 or when resizing it) should not wait until the pointer has crossed the window edges. Instead, moving the pointer automatically causes the nearest edge or edges to move by the same amount. This allows the resizing windows that extend off the edge of the screen. If the pointer is in the center of the window, or if the resize is begun by pressing a titlebar button, vtwm will still wait for the pointer to cross a window edge (to prevent accidents). This option is particularly useful for people who like the press-drag-release method of sweeping out window sizes.

AutoResizeKeepOnScreen

This variables indicates that if a window is fully on-screen when a programmatic (non-user-initiated) resize occurs, that if at all possible the window should be onsize after the resize has completed.

BeNiceToColormap

This variable specifies that stippled lines be used for the bevel colors when any of the 3D variables are set, to conserve on colormap allocations.

BorderBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking window borders, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The color of the 3D border is BorderTileBackground, and if NoHighlight is not selected, the border of the Focus window is BorderColor. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 2 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

BorderColor string [{ wincolorlist }]

This variable specifies the default color of the border to be placed around all non-iconified windows, and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist specifies a list of window and color name pairs for specifying particular border colors for different types of windows. For example:

BorderColor    "gray50"
{
    "XTerm"    "red"
    "xmh"      "green"
}

The default is "gray70".

BorderTileBackground string [{ wincolorlist }]

This variable specifies the default background color in the gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is "gray60".

BorderTileForeground string [{ wincolorlist }]

This variable specifies the default foreground color in the gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors to be specified. The default is "gray60".

BorderWidth pixels

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding all client window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not been specified. This value is also used to set the border size of windows created by vtwm (such as the icon manager). The default is 2 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 6 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

ButtonBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking window buttons. It specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 1 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

ButtonIndent pixels

This variable specifies the size of titlebar buttons, expressed as a difference from the titlebar font height, and normally means that titlebar buttons will shrink (built-in images) or be cropped (external images) accordingly. A negative value is accepted, however, indicating that titlebar buttons should be larger than the titlebar font. Setting this to a negated FramePadding value, with TitleButtonBorderWidth set to 0, makes titlebar buttons as tall and wide as possible. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with with 2D features, or -2 when vtwm is built with 3D features. (Note that there is an implicit 2 pixel adjustment when built when 3D features, meaning the -2 specified above would adjust to a zero pixel indention and a value of 2 would mean a four pixel indention).

ButtonColorIsFrame

This variable specifies that the titlebar buttons will be the same color as the window frame. It is set by default if vtwm is built with 3D features.

ClearBevelContrast contrast

Indicates to vtwm how to calculate the clear bevel color for 3D items. The value is a compressed to the range 0 and 100. The formula used is:

clear.{RGB} = (65535 - color.{RGB}) * (contrast / 100)

The default is 40 if vtwm is built with 3D features.

ClientBorderWidth

This variable indicates that width of a window's frame should be set to the border width as specified by the client, rather than to the value of BorderWidth. If BorderBevelWidth is non-zero, however, this variable is ignored.

Color { colors-list }

This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made if the default display is capable of displaying more than simple black and white. The colors-list is made up of the following color variables and their values: DefaultBackground, DefaultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitleBackground, MenuTitleForeground, and MenuShadowColor. The following color variables may also be given a list of window and color name pairs to allow per-window colors to be specified (see BorderColor for details): BorderColor, DesktopDisplayForeground, DesktopDisplayBackground, RealScreenForeground, RealScreenBackground, VirtualForeground, VirtualBackground, DekstopDisplayBorder, IconManagerHighlight, BorderTileBackground, BorderTileForeground, TitleBackground, TitleForeground, IconBackground, IconForeground, IconBorderColor, IconManagerBackground, and IconManagerForeground. For example:

Color
{
    MenuBackground     "gray50"
    MenuForeground     "blue"
    BorderColor        "red"
    {
        "XTerm"        "yellow"
    }
    TitleForeground    "yellow"
    TitleBackground    "blue"
}

All of these color variables may also be specified for the Monochrome variable, allowing the same initialization file to be used on both color and monochrome displays.

ConstrainedMoveTime milliseconds

This variable specifies the length of time between button clicks needed to begin a constrained move operation. Double clicking within this amount of time when invoking f.move will cause the window only to be moved in a horizontal or vertical direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.

Cursors { cursor-list }

This variable specifies the glyphs that vtwm should use for various pointer cursors. Each cursor may be defined either from the cursor font or from two bitmap files. Shapes from the cursor font may be specified directly as:

cursorname    "string"

where cursorname is one of the cursor names listed below, and string is the name of a glyph as found in the file /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h (without the "XC_" prefix). If the cursor is to be defined from bitmap files, the following syntax is used instead:

cursorname    "image"    "mask"

where image and mask specify the names of files containing the glyph image and mask in bitmap(1) form. The bitmap files are located in the same manner as icon bitmap files. The following example shows the default cursor definitions:

Cursors
{
    Frame      "top_left_arrow"
    Title      "top_left_arrow"
    Icon       "top_left_arrow"
    IconMgr    "top_left_arrow"
    Move       "fleur"
    Resize     "fleur"
    Menu       "sb_left_arrow"
    Button     "hand2"
    Wait       "watch"
    Select     "dot"
    Destroy    "pirate"
    Door       "exchange"
    Virtual    "rtl_logo"
    Desktop    "dotbox"
}
        

DarkBevelContrast contrast

Indicates to vtwm has to calculate the dark bevel color for 3D items. The value is a comprised between 0 and 100. The formula used is:

dark.{RGB} = color.{RGB} * ((100 - contrast) / 100)

The default is 40 if vtwm is built with 3D features.

DecorateTransients

This variable indicates that transient windows (those containing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property) should have titlebars. By default, transients are not reparented.

DefaultBackground string

This variable specifies the background color to be used for sizing and information windows. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

DefaultFont string

This variable specifies the font to use if loading some other font fails for some reason. The default is "fixed".

DefaultForeground string

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for sizing and information windows. The default is "gray85".

DeiconifyToScreen

When deiconifying a window, by default, the window will be placed at its previous geometry in the virtual desktop. With this variable set, vtwm ensures that the window will be placed somewhere on the real screen.

DesktopDisplayBackground color [{ win-list }]

This variable sets the backgrounds of the little windows inside the Virtual Desktop window, AND it sets the backgrounds of menu entries in the VTWM Windows menu -- unless you specify OldFashionedVtwmWindowsMenu. The default color is used for the default background of windows not named in the list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors, for example:

DesktopDisplayBackground    "purple"
{
    "zwgc"                  "green"
}

The default is "gray60".

DesktopDisplayBorder color [{ win-list }]

This variable sets the border color in the virtual desktop representation window to color. The win-list is in the same format as TitleForeground and other similar variables.

DesktopDisplayBorder    "black"
{
    "zwgc"              "green"
}

The default is "black".

DesktopDisplayForeground color [{ win-list }]

If both this and the VirtualDesktopFont variable are set, then the names of the windows will be written in the window representations shown in the desktop. This entry also sets foreground colors for entries in the VTWM Windows menu. The format of this variable is the same as that used for DesktopDisplayBackground. The default is "gray85".

DontDeiconifyTransients

This variable sees that iconified transient windows of an iconified parent window aren't deiconified when that parent is, thus preserving their state. Default behavior is to deiconify all transient subwindows of the ancestor window when it is deiconified.

DontIconifyByUnmapping { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of windows that should not be iconified by simply unmapping the window (as would be the case if IconifyByUnmapping had been set). This is frequently used to force some windows to be treated as icons while other windows are handled by the icon manager.

DontInterpolateTitles

This variable specifies a modification to the InterpolateMenuColors behavior. It will cause vtwm to not apply color interpolation to any titles in the middle of the menu. So, f.title strings that appear in the middle of the menu (ie, without a specific color defined for them) will inherit the default MenuTitle foreground and background colors.

DontMoveOff

This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to be moved off the screen. It can be overridden by the f.forcemove function.

DontShowInDisplay { list }

This variable specifies a list of clients that should not appear in the desktop display. The default is:

DontShowInDisplay
{
    "VTWM *"
    "xclock"
    "xload"
}
        

DontShowInTwmWindows { list }

DontShowInVtwmWindows { list }

These variables specify a list of clients that should not appear in the VTWM Windows menu.

DontSqueezeTitle [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that titlebars should not be squeezed to their minimum size as described under SqueezeTitle below. If the optional window list is supplied, only those windows will be prevented from being squeezed.

DoorBackground color [{ door-list }]

Specifies background colors of doors. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

DoorBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking doors, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 1 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

DoorFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used for text in doors. This must be set in order to see the doors. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*".

DoorForeground color [{ door-list }]

Specifies foreground colors of doors. The default is "gray85".

Doors { door-list }

This variable is used to create doors, which are teleports. Each item in the door-list has the following format:

"winname"    "location"    "jumpTo"

Windows with the name winname appear with size and position as defined in location (for extended geometry specification see IconManagerGeometry), and warp the user to jumpTo when f.enterdoor is executed inside them. Doors have a class of "VTWM Door".

EnableXftFontRenderer

This variable indicates that instead of the X11 core font renderer the Xft truetype font engine is to be used if available. For details see the Xft NOTES section below.

EnhancedExecResources

By default, f.exec variables behaved as they always did in vtwm. You would have to append " &" to all of your variables in order to execute them without blocking the window manager. With this option turned on, you don't have to; vtwm will automatically append " &" to the f.exec variable unless the last non-space character is either '&' or (in case you still want a command to block the window manager) ';'. For example, in a variable such as:

f.exec "foo; bar; baz"

the window manager will be blocked so that "foo" and "bar" can be executed; "baz" is the only command which will NOT block the window manager. If you want all these commands to be backgrounded, try the following:

f.exec "{ foo; bar; baz }" # note that "{" and "}"
                           # are shell keywords; they
                           # MUST be separated by
                           # spaces.

If you still want a command to block the window manager, you would use:

f.exec "xset fp rehash;" # vtwm will not append " &"
                         # because ';' is the last
                         # non-space character.

This behavior was inspired by that of vuewm(1), Hewlett-Packard's workspace implementation of mwm(1).

FixManagedVirtualGeometries

FixTransientVirtualGeometries

These are bug workarounds that *should* fix the way most windows' virtual geometries are handled i.e., they should be on the real screen if the parent windows are on the real screen, no matter where the virtual desktop is (xv(1) is one example of how these don't work). This only take affect (and thus may be needed) if and only if you have NotVirtualGeometries set.

ForceIcons

This variable indicates that icon image files specified in the Icons variable should override any client-supplied images.

FramePadding pixels

This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar font or the titlebar button height, whichever is greater, and the window frame, enlarging the titlebar as required. See also ButtonIndent, for how it influences the titlebar. The default is 2 pixels.

IconBackground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

IconBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking icons, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 2 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

IconBorderColor string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon windows, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "gray85".

IconBorderWidth pixels

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding icon windows. The default is 2 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 0 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

IconDirectory string

This variable specifies the directory that should be searched if an image file cannot be found in any of the directories in the bitmapFilePath variable.

IconFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon names within icons. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*".

IconForeground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "gray85".

IconifyByUnmapping [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by being unmapped without trying to map any icons. If the optional win-list is provided, only those windows will be iconified by simply unmapping. Windows that have both this and the IconManagerDontShow options set may not be accessible unless the user has provided bindings to the warp functions (f.warp and the like) while WarpUnmapped is set, or by the VTWM Windows menu. It is set by default.

IconManagerBackground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the background color to use for icon manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

IconManagerBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking icon manager entries, and specifies the width in pixels of their bevels. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 1 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

IconManagerDontShow [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that the icon manager should not display any windows. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not be displayed. This variable is used to prevent windows that are rarely iconified (such as xclock or xload) from taking up space in the icon manager. The default is:

IconManagerDontShow
{
    "VTWM *"
    "xclock"
    "xload"
}
        

IconManagerFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying icon manager entries. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*".

IconManagerForeground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icon manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "gray85".

IconManagerGeometry string [ columns ]

This variable indicates that a default icon manager is to be created, with the geometry specified with string. The string argument should be a standard X geometry specification "WxH+X+Y", specifying the initial size and/or location. The icon manager window is then broken into columns pieces and scaled according to the number of entries in the icon manager. Extra entries are wrapped to form additional rows. The default string is "+0+0", and the default columns is 1.

The geometry specification may include an extra parameter @P appended as in WxH+X+Y@P to denote the Xinerama or Xrandr panel (or a rectangular area) as the origin for the denoted geometry. Valid values for P include absolute panel indices as positive integers (or alphanumeric Xinerama or Xrandr output connector names, e.g. Xinerama0, Xinerama1, LVDS, VGA, TMDS-1, TV, etc.) and dynamic indices denoted by keywords pointer, next and prev specifying the panel (resp. the next or previous one) containing the mouse. The special keyword all is an alias for the X11 logical screen at full size (use with care in 'non-wall' panel arrangements). Further, current denotes the maximum rectangular visible area spanned across panels intersected by the standard part WxH+X+Y (which is then considered relative to all) of the geometry specification. If the extended parameter @P is missing, @current is assumed.

IconManagerHighlight string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the border color to be used when highlighting the icon manager entry that currently has the focus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is "black".

IconManagers { iconmgr-list }

This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create, in addition to the default icon manager if IconManagerGeometry is used. Each item in the iconmgr-list has the following format:

"winname"    ["iconname"]    "geometry"    columns
        

where winname is the name of the windows that should be put into this icon manager, iconname is the name of that icon manager window's icon, geometry is an extended geometry specification, and columns is the number of columns in this icon manager as described in IconManagerGeometry. For example:

IconManagers
{
    "XTerm"     "300x5+800+5"    5
    "myhost"    "400x5+100+5"    2
}
        

Clients whose name or class is "XTerm" will have an entry created in the "XTerm" icon manager. Clients whose name was "myhost" would be put into the "myhost" icon manager.

IconManagerShow { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear in the icon manager. When used in conjunction with the IconManagerDontShow variable, only the windows in this list will be shown in the icon manager. By default, all windows are shown except those in IconManagerDontShow.

IconOpacity value

This integer value (in range 0...255 corresponding to transparent...opaque) is used to set the _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY property for the iconmanager and icons windows accordingly (allowing window semitransparency by e.g. xcompmgr by FreeDesktop.org and the Xorg X server Xcomposite extension). Default value is 255.

IconRegion geomstr vgrav hgrav hgrid vgrid

This variable specifies an area on the root window in which icons are placed if no specific icon location is provided by the client. The geomstr is a quoted string containing an extended geometry specification (see IconManagerGeometry) for the region size and location. If more than one IconRegion line is given, icons will be put into the succeeding regions when the first is full. The vgrav argument should be either North or South and is used to control whether icons are first filled in from the top or bottom of the region. Similarly, the hgrav argument should be either East or West and is used to control whether icons should be filled in from the left or right. Icons are laid out in a grid with cells hgrid pixels wide and vgrid pixels high. Note that the smallest dimension of the region must be at least the size of the largest icon in it in the same direction. Note also that many applications change their icon name as they run, and no provision is made to reformat the icon regions if any icon changes size accordingly.

Icons { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of window names and the image filenames that should be used as their icons. For example:

Icons
{
    "XTerm"    "xterm.icon"
    "xfd"      "xfd_icon"
}
        

Windows that match "XTerm" and would not be iconified by unmapping, and would try to use the icon image in the file "xterm.icon". If ForceIcons is specified, this image will be used even if the client has requested its own icon image.

IgnoreModifiers modlist

This variable specifies the "shift states" to ignore when determining if an event is bound by vtwm. In this example:

IgnoreModifiers    l | m2

the CapsLock and NumLock states will be ignored. Note that the use of this variable can generate quite a bit of X protocol network traffic; modlist should be kept as small as possible. See also the BINDINGS section.

Immutable { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of windows which can not be moved or resized. For example:

Immutable
{
    "VTWM Icon Manager"   
    "VTWM Desktop"
    "xclock"  
    "xload"
}
        

InfoBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking identify, move and resize windows, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 2 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

InfoFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used for in the identify window. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*".

InterpolateMenuColors

This variable indicates that menu entry colors should be interpolated between entry specified colors. In this example:

Menu    "mymenu"
{
    "Title"     ("black":"red")      f.title
    "entry1"                         f.nop
    "entry2"                         f.nop
    "entry3"    ("white":"green")    f.nop
    "entry4"                         f.nop
    "entry5"    ("red":"white")      f.nop
}

the foreground colors for "entry1" and "entry2" will be interpolated between black and white, and the background colors between red and green. Similarly, the foreground for "entry4" will be half-way between white and red, and the background will be half-way between green and white.

LessRandomZoomZoom

With this option turned on, this makes random zooms a bit less "random" and a bit more visible. This might make a better visual bell, depending on your personal taste.

MakeTitle { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of windows on which a titlebar should be placed and is used to request titles on specific windows when NoTitle has been set.

MaxWindowSize string

This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and height give the maximum size for a given window. This is typically used to restrict windows to the size of the screen. The default is "30000x30000".

MenuBackground string

This variable specifies the background color used for menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

MenuBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking menus, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 2 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

MenuFont string

This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".

MenuForeground string

This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is "gray85".

MenuOpacity value

This integer value (in range 0...255 corresponding to transparent...opaque) is used to set the _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY property for the vtwm menu-, info-, virtual desktop and door windows accordingly (allowing window semitransparency by e.g. xcompmgr by FreeDesktop.org and the Xorg X server Xcomposite extension). Default value is 255.

MenuScrollBorderWidth pixels

When the contents of a menu would make it taller than the display, moving the pointer within pixels of the top or bottom of the menu causes it to scroll the entries. The default value is 2.

MenuScrollJump entries

This variable specifies the number of entries to scroll when the pointer is moved within the area defined by MenuScrollBorderWidth. The default is 3 entries.

MenuShadowColor string

This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-down menus and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is "black".

MenuTitleBackground string

This variable specifies the background color for f.title entries in menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is "gray70".

MenuTitleFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used in menu titles. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".

MenuTitleForeground string

This variable specifies the foreground color for f.title entries in menus and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

Monochrome { colors }

This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should be made if the screen has a depth of 1. See the description of Colors.

MoveDelta pixels

This variable specifies the number of pixels the pointer must move before the f.move and f.resize functions and initial menu highlighting starts working. See also the f.deltastop function. The default is 3 pixels.

NailedAbove

This variable causes nailed windows to be physically above non-nailed windows. The f.nailedabove function can be used to toggle this setting.

NailedDown { list }

This variable gives a list of clients that are nailed initially. The default is:

NailedDown
{
    "VTWM *"
    "xclock"
    "xload"
}
        

NaturalAutopanBehavior

By default, when autopanning, the pointer is warped by only

(AutoPanBorderWidth + AutoPanExtraWarp)

pixels on the real screen. With this option turned on, the pointer is warped on the real screen by as many pixels as the screen is scrolled, or the above value, whichever is greater. Thus, the pointer does not normally move very much (only by AutoPanExtraWarp) in relation to the virtual desktop.

This works really well on faster X terminals and workstations, although for slower ones, you may want to use the following:

AutoPanWarpWithRespectToRealScreen    50

to achieve a similar effect. Setting NaturalAutopanBehavior has the exact same effect as using the variable

AutoPanWarpWithRespectToRealScreen    100

NoBackingStore

This variable indicates that vtwm's windows should not request backing store to minimize repainting. This is typically used with servers that can repaint faster than they can handle backing store.

NoBorder [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that windows should not have borders. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not have borders.

NoBorderDecorations

This variable indicates that the 3D borders of titled windows should not have the little divots adorning the corners.

NoCaseSensitive

This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sorting icon names in an icon manager. This option is typically used with applications that capitalize the first letter of their icon name.

NoDefaultMouseOrKeyboardBindings

This variable indicates that vtwm should not supply the default pointer and keyboard bindings. This option should only be used if the startup file contains a completely new set of pointer and keyboard bindings and definitions. See also NoDefaults.

NoDefaults

This variable indicates that vtwm should not supply the default titlebar buttons and bindings. This option should only be used if the startup file contains a completely new set of bindings and definitions. This function has the effect of setting both NoDefaultMouseOrKeyboardBindings and NoDefaultTitleButtons.

NoDefaultTitleButtons

This variable indicates that vtwm should not supply the default titlebar buttons. This option should only be used if the startup file contains a completely new set of titlebar button definitions. See also NoDefaults.

NoGrabServer

This variable indicates that vtwm should minimize server grabs when popping up menus and moving or resizing windows.

NoHighlight [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that borders should not be highlighted to track the location of the pointer. If the optional win-list is given, highlighting will only be disabled for those windows. When the border is highlighted, it will be drawn in the current BorderColor. When the border is not highlighted, it will be stippled with an gray pattern using the current BorderTileForeground and BorderTileBackground colors. It is set by default if vtwm is built with 3D features.

NoIconManagerFocus

This variable indicates that vtwm should not set focus to windows corresponding to their entries in an icon manager. Normally, vtwm sets the focus so that events from an icon manager are delivered to the application. Typically, this is set to facilitate icon manager bindings that would otherwise be delivered to the application.

NoIconManagerHighlight

This variable indicates that icon manager entries will not be highlighted to track the location of the pointer. This is independant of the NoHighlight variable.

NoIconManagers

This variable indicates that no icon manager should be created.

NoIconifyIconManagers

This variable indicates that no icon manager should be iconified.

NoMenuShadows

This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shadows drawn behind them. This is typically used with slower servers since it speeds up menu drawing at the expense of making the menu slightly harder to read.

NoOpaqueMove [{ win-list }]

NoOpaqueResize [{ win-list }]

These variables indicate that the f.move and f.resize functions should change just a window's outline. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will be affected. These are usually used to narrow the scope of "global" OpaqueMove and OpaqueResize variables.

NoPrettyTitles

If you don't mind long titles butting up against the right edge of short titlebars and icon managers. Disables the default behavior of using ellipses to indicate a truncated title.

NoRaiseOnDeiconify

NoRaiseOnMove

NoRaiseOnResize

NoRaiseOnWarp

These variables indicate that windows should not be raised after a deiconify, move, resize, or warp operation, and are typically used to preserve the window stacking order. Note that the pointer may end up in an occluding window when these variables are used.

NoSaveUnders

This variable indicates that menus should not request save-unders to minimize window repainting following menu selection. It is typically used with displays that can repaint faster than they can handle save-unders.

NoStackMode [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that client window requests to change stacking order should be ignored. If the optional win-list is given, only requests on those windows will be ignored. This is typically used to prevent applications from relentlessly popping themselves to the front of the window stack.

NoStormPositioning

This variable indicates that during a "storm" of window creation by a single application which uses window groups, instead of overriding the default window positioning code (e.g. random, user selected, pointer placement, etc) and placing newer windows on top of older windows, let the normal window positioning methods run.

NoTitle [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that windows should not have titlebars. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not have titlebars. MakeTitle may be used with this option to force titlebars to be put on specific windows. The default is:

NoTitle
{
    "VTWM *"
    "xclock"
    "xload"
}
        

NoTitleFocus

This variable indicates that vtwm should not set keyboard input focus to each window as it is entered. Normally, vtwm sets the focus so that focus and key events from the titlebar and icon managers are delivered to the application. If the pointer is moved quickly and vtwm is slow to respond, input can be directed to the old window instead of the new. This option is typically used to prevent this "input lag" and to work around bugs in older applications that have problems with focus events.

NoTitleHighlight [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that the highlight area of the titlebar, which is used to indicate the window that currently has the input focus, should not be displayed. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not have highlight areas. This and the SqueezeTitle options can be set to substantially reduce the amount of screen space required by titlebars.

NotVirtualGeometries

This variable indicates that vtwm should assume that user geometries should be relative to the current screen-view into the virtual space, as opposed to the default of absolute use of the user geometries in the virtual space. If you set this, then "xterm -geometry +20+20" specifies a position in the current view; otherwise, it would specify a position in the top-left view. By default, +20+20 specifies a position in the top-left view. See FixManagedVirtualGeometries, FixTransientVirtualGeometries, and UsePPosition.

NoWindowRing { win-list }

This variable specifies a list of windows that will not be added to the list along which the f.warpring function cycles. See also WindowRing.

OldFashionedTwmWindowsMenu

OldFashionedVtwmWindowsMenu

By default, the VTWM Windows menu will use the same colors that you see in the panner. This variable disables that behavior.

OpaqueMove [{ win-list }]

OpaqueResize [{ win-list }]

These variables indicate that the f.move and f.resize functions should actually change the window instead of just an outline so that the user can immediately see what the window will look like. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will be affected "opaquely". These options are typically used on fast systems (particularly when NoGrabServer is set).

PanDistanceX N

PanDistanceY N

These variables define a grid of screens for the virtual desktop, expressed as N% of a real screen. When the f.snap function is called, the real screen will be moved to the closest grid location. The (mis)naming of these variables is for historical reasons. The default value is 100, effectively setting up "pages" in the virtual desktop.

PanResistance milliseconds

This variable indicates how hard it should be to pan to an adjacent virtual screen. It specifies how long the pointer must be within AutoPanBorderWidth pixels of the real screen's edge. Values equal to 0 or greater than 10000 disables this feature. The default is 750 milliseconds.

PauseOnExit N

PauseOnQuit N

These variables define a delay on exit, expressed in seconds. They allow the (vtwm stop) and f.quit sounds time to play before the connection to rplayd(8) is closed.

Pixmaps { pixmaps }

This variable specifies a list of images that define the appearance of various windows. Each entry is a keyword indicating the window to set, followed by a string giving the name of the image. Built-in and external images may be freely mixed, given the constraints described in the IMAGE AND AUDIO FORMATS section. The following windows may be specified thus:

Pixmaps
{
    TitleHighlight             ":xpm:sunkenbox"
    RealScreenPixmap           "scaledbackground.xpm"
    VirtualBackgroundPixmap    "gray1"
    MenuIconPixmap             ":xpm:rarrow"
    IconManagerPixmap          ":xpm:zoom"
}
        

By default, the TitleHighlight is an even, stippled pattern if vtwm is built with 2D features, or "sunken" lines when vtwm is built with 3D features. The MenuIconPixmap is a right arrow by default (rendered 3D as appropriate), and the default IconManagerPixmap is either the X logo or a "raised" box, for 2D or 3D features, respectively.

PointerPlacement

This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry should be placed with the window origin at the location of the mouse pointer or, if WarpSnug is specified, as close as possible to that location such that the window fits onto the real screen. If RandomPlacement is also set then it takes precedence.

PrettyZoom

If Zoom is turned on, this makes the associated animation look just a little nicer, depending on your personal taste. This makes the zoom slower, however, so you may have to decrease the value of the Zoom variable.

RaiseDelay milliseconds

For windows that are to be automatically raised when the pointer enters (see the AutoRaise variable and the f.autoraise function) this variable specifies the length of time the pointer should rest in the window before it is raised. The default is 0 milliseconds.

RaiseOnStart

This variable specifies that the raise which would normally occur at the end of a move or resize operation (subject to MoveDelta, NoRaiseOnMove, and NoRaiseOnResize) will occur at the start of the operation. This may be useful when OpaqueMove and/or OpaqueResize are specified. Note that cancelling a move or resize operation with this variable set will not preserve the window stacking order.

RandomPlacement

This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry should be placed in a pseudo-random location instead of having the user drag an outline (or the window itself if the OpaqueMove variable is set) to the preferred location.

RealScreenBackground string

See RealScreenForeground.

RealScreenBorderWidth pixels

This value specifies the border width of the RealScreen window (see RealScreenForeground). The default value is 0 pixels.

RealScreenForeground string

Inside what vtwm calls the virtual desktop window, but which we might call the "panner", is a little window that shows where the physical screen is located in virtual space. The vtwm source code calls this little window the RealScreen. By default, it has no border, and can be distinguished from the normal backdrop of the panner only by its color or image. Its foreground color has no meaning unless you give it an image. (It can be given a border with RealScreenBorderWidth.)

RealScreenPixmap string

Names an image file used to decorate the RealScreen window. A sample is provided, nestedsqu.xbm, but your mileage may vary as the size of your screen varies! It is easy to find out the size of this window and to create any image file of type bitmap(1) or pixmap(1) for it; that is the recommended procedure.

RecoverStolenFocus attempts

This variable indicates that vtwm should attempt to return focus if it discovers some client window is grabbing focus on its own. After attempts unsuccessful trials vtwm gives up. By default vtwm does not attempt to steal focus back. The titlebar highlighting will always indicate where focus is directed, even after focus theft by a greedy client. Vtwm also measures X11-server roundtrip and esimates a timeout for focus recovery, and no further attempts are made if this timeout is reached. (Attention: high system load or mouse movement speed may lead to accidental focus lag.)

ResizeFont string

This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimensions window when resizing windows. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".

ResizeRegion location

This variable specifies the area on the screen to display the resize window. The location should be one of NorthWest, NorthEast, SouthWest, SouthEast, or Centered.

RestartOnScreenChangeNotify

This per-screen variable indicates that vtwm should automatically execute f.restart in case RRScreenChangeNotify event of XRANDR X11-extension occurs on the given screen. In order to preserve client window unzoomed sizes all zoomed clients are unzoomed first.

RestartOnScreenSizeChangeNotify

In contrast to RestartOnScreenChangeNotify this variable indicates that vtwm should restart on the RRScreenChangeNotify event only if the X11 logical screen size has changed (i.e. the values returned by XDisplayWidth() or XDisplayHeight() differ from those in effect during vtwm startup).

RestartPreviousState

This variable indicates that vtwm should attempt to use the WM_STATE property on client windows to tell which windows should be iconified and which should be left visible. This is typically used to try to regenerate the state that the screen was in before the previous window manager was shutdown. It is set by default.

RightHandSidePulldownMenus

Pull-down menus can appear when the pointer is to the right of the center of their parent menu, or they can appear when the pointer is closer to the right edge of their parent menu. This option enables the latter behavior, and is the default.

SaveColor { colors-list }

This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be stored as pixel values in the root window property _MIT_PRIORITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these values when installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mechanism is a way an for application to avoid the "technicolor" problem, whereby useful screen objects such as window borders and titlebars disappear when a programs custom colors are installed by the window manager. For example:

SaveColor
{
    BorderColor
    TitleBackground
    TitleForeground
    "red"
    "green"
    "blue"
}
        

This would place on the root window 3 pixel values for borders and titlebars, as well as the three color strings, all taken from the default colormap.

ShallowReliefWindowButton

This indicates that the features of built-in 3D titlebar buttons, the 3D icon manager button the 3D menu pull-right icon, and the 3D titlebar highlight area should be rendered with a "flatter" appearance. It is set by default if vtwm is built with 3D features.

ShowIconManager

This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be displayed when vtwm is started. It can always be brought up using the f.showiconmgr function.

SloppyFocus

This boolean variable sets the vtwm client focusing model initially into sloppy mode: moving the mouse out of some client window doesn't unfocus it until some other client window is entered. Default value is FALSE and can be set to TRUE by f.sloppyfocus (f.unfocus and f.focus recover FALSE).

SnapRealScreen

This variable causes the real screen to snap to a grid defined in PanDistanceX and PanDistanceY increments whenever the representation moves. The f.snaprealscreen function can be used to toggle this setting.

SortIconManager

This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager should be sorted alphabetically rather than by simply appending new windows to the end. It is set by default.

SoundHost string

This variable specifies what machine (by its TCP/IP hostname) is running the rplayd(8) daemon. If not specified, the local machine is tried. If rplayd(8) cannot be accessed, sound will be toggled off.

Sounds { sound-list }

This variable is a list of identifiers and associated sound files. It contains entries of the form:

"identifier"    "soundfile"    [volume]

where identifier is any function described in the BINDINGS section except f.playsound, f.sounds, and f.separator, as well as these event identifiers: (vtwm start), (vtwm stop), (client map), (client unmap), (menu map), (menu unmap), (info unmap), (autopan event), and (bell event). The soundfile is the full pathname of the sound file to play for the associated identifier, and volume sets the volume for which to play that sound (see also SoundVolume). Note that the list entries must be quoted:

Sounds
{
    "(vtwm start)"    "/usr/share/sounds/wowee.wav"
    "(vtwm stop)"     "/usr/share/sounds/seeya.wav"
    "f.exec"          "/usr/share/sounds/click.au"   50
    "(client map)"    "/usr/share/sounds/ping.au"    50
    "f.delete"        "/usr/share/sounds/doh1.wav"
    "f.deletedoor"    "/usr/share/sounds/doh2.wav"
    "f.destroy"       "/usr/share/sounds/doh3.wav"
    "(client unmap)"  "/usr/share/sounds/ping.au"
}
        

This example points out that some identifiers "overlap":

f.beep > (bell event)            f.exec > (client map)
f.delete > (client unmap)        f.menu > (menu map)
f.deletedoor > (client unmap)    f.quit > (vtwm stop)
f.destroy > (client unmap)       f.version = f.identify

In these cases, the function takes precedence over the event when both would otherwise play.

SoundVolume N

This variable sets the overall volume for which to play sounds, expressed as N% of maximum. Default is 25 (1/4 attenuation).

SqueezeTitle [{ squeeze-list }]

This variable indicates that vtwm should attempt to use the SHAPE extension to make titlebars occupy only as much screen space as they need, rather than extending all the way across the top of the window. The optional squeeze-list may be used to control the location of the squeezed titlebar along the top of the window. It contains entries of the form:

"name"    justification    num    denom
        

where name is a window name, justification is either left, center, or right, and num and denom are numbers specifying a ratio for the relative position about which the titlebar is located, measured from left to right. A ratio of 0/0 indicates that the justification is absolute, A non-zero numerator with a zero denominator indicates a pixel count, and the justification is ignored entirely for any other ratio. For example:

SqueezeTitle
{
    "XTerm"     left      0    0
    "xterm1"    left      1    3
    "xterm2"    right     2    3
    "oclock"    center    0    0
    "emacs"     right     0    0
}
        

The DontSqueezeTitle list can be used to turn off squeezing on certain titles. It is set by default.

StartIconified [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that client windows should initially be left as icons until explicitly deiconified by the user. If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will be started iconic. This is useful for programs that do not support an -iconic command line option or resource.

StaticIconPositions

This variable alters icon placement such that they will maintain their positions on the virtual desktop when not nailed and DeiconifyToScreen is not used. This is most applicable when SnapRealScreen and AutoPan is used with PanDistanceX and PanDistanceY values to simulate ctwm(1) workspaces.

StayUpMenus

This variable alters menu interaction. By default, a menu item is selected when a pointer button is released over it. This variable causes menu items to be selected on the next button press event.

StayUpOptionalMenus

This variable is similar to StayUpMenus, except that if any menu items are selected, the menu interaction reverts to the old behavior. For example, suppose you have the right pointer button bound to bring up a menu with a title bar. Clicking the right button and releasing it (over the title bar) will bring up the menu and have it stay up until you click on a menu item. Clicking the right button, moving the pointer to a menu item, and releasing the right button will activate that menu item and dismiss the menu.

Sticky { list }

A synonym for NailedDown.

StickyAbove

A synonym for NailedAbove.

StrictIconManager

This variable causes icon managers to list only those windows that are in an iconified state.

TextOffsets { offset-list }

This list provides fine grain control over the placement of fonts. Each entry is a keyword indicating a font followed by a string indicating an offset in the standard X11 geometry "+X+Y" (i.e. without the height and width parts). For example:

TextOffsets
{
    TitleFont           "+1-1"
    MenuTitleFont       "+0+1"
    MenuFont            "+0-1"
    IconManagerFont     "+0-2"
    VirtualDesktopFont  "-1-4"
}
        

Default offsets are "+0+0".

TitleBackground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the background color used in titlebars, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

TitleBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use 3D-looking titlebars, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel that surrounds the titlebar. If the value of ButtonIndent added to FramePadding equals zero, the bevel will be bound to the text and highlight area. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 1 when vtwm is built with 3D features..

TitleButtonBorderWidth pixels

This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding titlebar buttons, drawn in the TitleForeground color. The default is 1 if vtwm is built with 2D bitmaps, or 0 when vtwm is built with 3D pixmaps.

TitleFont string

This variable specifies the font to used for displaying window names in titlebars. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".

TitleForeground string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies the foreground color used in titlebars, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

TitlePadding pixels

This variable specifies the distance between titlebar buttons in the titlebar. Note that distances between buttons and the title, the title and the highlight area, and the highlight area and buttons, are all set to a hard-coded value. The default is 5 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 0 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

UnknownIcon string

This variable specifies the filename of an image file to be used as the default icon. This image will be used as the icon of all clients which do not provide an icon image and are not listed in the Icons list.

UnzoomToScreen

When unzooming a window, by default, the window will be placed at its previous geometry in the virtual desktop. With this variable set, vtwm ensures that the window will be placed somewhere on the real screen.

UsePPosition string [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies whether or not vtwm should honor program-requested locations (given by the PPosition flag in the WM_NORMAL_HINTS property), in the absence of a user-specified position. The argument string may have one of four values: "off" (the default) indicating that vtwm should ignore the program-supplied position, "on" indicating that the position should be used, "non-zero" indicating that the position should used if it is other than (0,0) (for working around a bug in older toolkits) and finally "on-screen" indicating that the position should only be used it it resolves to something visible on the physical screen. The optional win-list is a list of window names and arguments that will override the global string argument. For example:

UsePPosition    "off"
{
    "MPlayer"   "on"
}

VirtualBackground string

This is the background color for the panner, a.k.a. the Virtual Desktop window. The default is "maroon" for color displays or "gray50" for monochrome displays.

VirtualBackgroundPixmap string

Names an image file to decorate the panner.

VirtualForeground string

Foreground for the panner; has no use unless you specify a panner image of type bitmap(1).

VirtualDesktop geometry scale

This variable must be set to enable the virtual desktop features of vtwm. If this variable is not set, vtwm will behave in the same manner as twm. This variable specifies where to place the virtual desktop window and its size. The geometry is a standard X geometry specification and defines the size and location of the window containing the desktop representation. The geometry specification may include the @P parameter appended as described in IconManagerGeometry.

The scale parameter specifies the scaling of the virtual desktop window compared to the desktop. The size specification can be given in three ways: If size is larger than the screen size, it represents the size of the whole desktop, and the virtual window desktop size will then be size divided by scale. When size times scale is smaller than the screen size, size represents the number of screens that should fit in the desktop. Otherwise size represents the size of the virtual desktop window, and the currently accessible virtual desktop is then scale times the size of the desktop window. Using the default as an example:

VirtualDesktop    "5x2-0-0"    16

With scale set to 16, and a physical screen size of 1024x768, the desktop area is 1/16 the size of the screen times the number of screens specified:

(5 * (1024 / 16)) x (2 * (768 / 16)) = 320 x 96

The size of the desktop can be changed dynamically, by simply resizing the virtual desktop window.

VirtualDesktopBevelWidth pixels

Tells vtwm to use a 3D-looking virtual desktop, and specifies the width in pixels of the bevel. The default is 0 if vtwm is built with 2D features, or 1 when vtwm is built with 3D features.

VirtualDesktopFont font

This variable causes font to be used when displaying the names of windows in the virtual desktop display. If this variable is not set, then names will not be displayed. The DesktopDisplayForeground should also be set for this feature to be useful. The default is "-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-80-*-*-*-*-*-*".

VirtualReceivesMotionEvents

VirtualSendsMotionEvents

These variables indicate that changes to the position and dimension of windows on the real screen will be reflected in the virtual desktop as they occur, and visa-versa.

WarpCentered string

By default, on warps to windows, the pointer goes to either the center of the titlebar, or in the absence of, the center of the top border member. This variable specifies that the pointer should warp to the center of the window depending on the string argument: "on" indicates all windows, "titled" indicates titled windows only, "untitled" indicates untitled windows only, and "off" (the default) indicating the default behavior. Note that warps to icon managers are exceptional: The pointer always goes to either the active entry, or in the absence of, the top entry.

WarpCursor [{ win-list }]

This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into windows when they are first created or later deiconified. If the optional win-list is given, the pointer will only be warped when those windows are created or deiconified. It is set by default.

WarpSnug

With this variable set, the warp functions (f.warp and the like) will fit the entire window on the screen, i.e., they'll be snugged on the real screen.

WarpToTransients

This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into transient windows when they are created, given the corresponding clients pointed to by their WM_TRANSIENT_FOR window property have already focus.

WarpUnmapped

This variable indicates that the warp functions (f.warp and the like) should deiconify any iconified windows they encounter. This is typically used to make a key binding that will pop a particular window (such as xmh), no matter where it is. The default is for the functions to ignore iconified windows.

WarpVisible

This variable indicates that the warp functions f.warpclassnext, f.warpclassprev, f.warpring, and f.warpto should restrict themselves to windows that are on the screen. The default is for the functions to traverse the entire virtual desktop.

WarpWindows

When warping to a window, by default the real screen will be moved to find the window on the virtual desktop. With this set, the window itself will be warped to the real screen, moving the window in the virtual desktop.

WindowRing [{ win-list }]

This variable specifies that when windows are created, they should be added to the list that the f.warpring function operates on. If the optional win-list is given, then only those windows will be included in the window ring. See also NoWindowRing and f.ring.

XorValue number

This variable specifies the value to use when drawing window outlines for moving and resizing. This should be set to a value that will result in a variety of distinguishable colors when exclusive-or'ed with the contents of the user's typical screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice results if adjacent colors in the default colormap are distinct. By default, vtwm will attempt to cause temporary lines to appear at the opposite end of the colormap from the graphics.

Zoom [ count ]

This variable indicates that outlines suggesting movement of a window to and from its iconified state should be displayed whenever a window is iconified or deiconified. The optional count argument specifies the number of outlines to be drawn. The default count is 8.

ZoomState geomstring

This per-screen keyword indicates if WM_STATE or WM_HINTS initial-state property is set to ZoomState, the window is to be zoomed by vtwm on client startup as denoted in geomstring analogously to the f.panelzoom specification. The WM_STATE property is set to ZoomState on vtwm shutdown if the client is zoomed in that moment as given in geomstring (without considering the panel index part). Only the 'aliased' zooming geometry specifications are accepted. By default the WM_STATE or WM_HINTS initial-state property value of ZoomState is treated as NormalState and no zooming is performed.

ZoomZoom

This variable modifies zooms such that a random place will be used for the source or destination when there isn't an appropriate window (e.g., an icon, icon manager entry, or client window). Default behavior inhibits zooms when there aren't appropriate windows, except for the f.zoomzoom function.

SPECIAL VARIABLES

The following variables must be set after the fonts have been assigned, so it is usually best to put them at the end of the variables or beginning of the bindings sections:

DefaultFunction function

This variable specifies the function to be executed when a key or button event is received for which no binding is provided. This is typically bound to f.nop, f.beep, or a menu containing window operations.

WindowFunction function

This variable specifies the function to execute when a window is selected from the VTWM Windows menu. If this variable is not set (default), the window will be deiconified and raised. It is strongly recommended that if this is set, the function includes provision for deiconifying windows.

BINDINGS

After the desired variables have been set, functions may be attached titlebar buttons and key and pointer buttons. Titlebar buttons may be added from the left or right side and appear in the titlebar from left-to-right according to the order in which they are specified. Key and pointer button bindings may be given in any order.

Titlebuttons specifications must include the name of the image to use in the button box and the function to be invoked when a pointer button is pressed within them:

LeftTitleButton  "image" = function
    

RightTitleButton "image" = function
    

See the ButtonIndent and FramePadding variables and the IMAGE AND AUDIO FORMATS section for details on the image specification.

Key and pointer button specifications must give the modifiers that must be pressed, over which parts of the screen the pointer must be, and what function is to be invoked. Keys are given as strings containing the appropriate keysym name; buttons are given as the keywords Button1-Button5:

"FP1"   = modlist : context : function
Button1 = modlist : context : function
    

The modlist is any combination of the modifier names shift, control, lock, meta, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, or mod5 (which may be abbreviated as s, c, l, m, m1, m2, m3, m4, m5, respectively) separated by a vertical bar (|). Similarly, the context is any combination of window, title, icon, root, frame, virtual, desktop, door, iconmgr, their first letters (iconmgr abbreviation is m, door has no abbreviation), or all, separated by a vertical bar. It is rumored that window class names will also work. The function is any of the f. keywords described below. For example, the default startup file contains the following bindings:

Button1 =   : root          : f.menu "VTWM Windows"
Button1 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-lower"
Button2 = m : window | icon : f.iconify
Button3 = m : window | icon : f.move
Button1 =   : title         : f.move
Button2 =   : title         : f.raiselower
Button1 =   : icon          : f.function "move-or-iconify"
Button2 =   : icon          : f.iconify
Button1 =   : iconmgr       : f.iconify
Button2 =   : iconmgr       : f.iconify

A user who wanted to be able to manipulate windows from the keyboard could use the following bindings:

"F1"    =       : all : f.iconify
"F2"    =       : all : f.raiselower
"F3"    =       : all : f.warpring "next"
"F4"    =       : all : f.warpto "xmh"
"F5"    =       : all : f.warpto "emacs"
"F6"    =       : all : f.colormap "next"
"F7"    =       : all : f.colormap "default"
"F20"   =       : all : f.warptoscreen "next"
"Left"  = m     : all : f.backiconmgr
"Right" = m | s : all : f.forwiconmgr
"Up"    = m     : all : f.upiconmgr
"Down"  = m | s : all : f.downiconmgr

Note, however, that using all for button or key bindings is almost always a bad idea, since it prevents all applications from receiving those events; this can cripple text and graphics editors that otherwise expect to see those buttons or keys (see also the IgnoreModifiers variable, and the f.bindbuttons, f.bindkeys, f.unbindbuttons, and f.unbindkeys functions).

vtwm provides many more window manipulation primitives than can be conveniently stored in a titlebar, menu, or set of key bindings. Although a small set of defaults are supplied (unless either NoDefaults, NoDefaultMouseOrKeyboardBindings, or NoDefaultTitleButtons is specified), most users will want to have their most common operations bound to key and button strokes. To do this, vtwm associates names with each of the primitives and provides user-defined functions for building higher level primitives and menus for interactively selecting among groups of functions.

User-defined functions contain the name by which they are referenced in calls to f.function and a list of other functions to execute. For example:

Function "move-or-lower"    { f.move f.deltastop f.lower }
Function "move-or-iconify"  { f.move f.deltastop f.iconify }
Function "restore-colormap" { f.colormap "default" f.lower }

The function name must be used in f.function exactly as it appears in the function specification.

VTWM PROFILE. If a function called "VTWM Profile" is defined within the startup file, that function will be executed upon startup or restarting of the window manager. For example:

AutoPan    25
Function   "VTWM Profile"
{
    f.autopan
}

In the descriptions below, if the function is said to operate on the selected window, but is invoked from a root menu, the cursor will be changed to the Select cursor and the next window to receive a button press will be chosen:

! string

This is an abbreviation for f.exec string.

^ string (OBSOLETE --- use a clipboard client)

This is an abbreviation for f.cut string.

f.autopan

If autopan wasn't configured in your .vtwmrc file, this does nothing. If, however, it was configured, this toggles the current autopan state. The reason for this command is that autopan is sometimes nice to have, but it interferes with using sticky windows that are near the edge of the screen. With this command, you get the best of both worlds.

f.autoraise

This function toggles whether or not the selected window is raised whenever entered by the pointer. See the description of the variable AutoRaise.

f.backiconmgr

This function warps the pointer to the previous column in the current icon manager, wrapping back to the previous row if necessary.

f.beep

This function sounds the keyboard bell.

f.bindbuttons

f.bindkeys

These functions enable vtwm's pointer or keyboard bindings for the selected window. These are only needed if the bindings have been disabled with the f.unbindbuttons or f.unbindkeys functions. Be careful what you bind these functions to; f.bindkeys bound to a window context key will not be accessable after f.unbindkeys is invoked for the window!

f.bottomzoom

This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, but resizes the window to fill only the bottom half of the screen.

f.circledown

This function lowers the top-most window that occludes another window.

f.circleup

This function raises the bottom-most window that is occluded by another window.

f.colormap string

This function rotates the colormaps (obtained from the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property on the window) that vtwm will display when the pointer is in this window. The argument string may have one of the following values: "next", "prev", and "default". It should be noted here that in general, the installed colormap is determined by keyboard focus. A pointer driven keyboard focus will install a private colormap upon entry of the window owning the colormap. Using the click to type model, private colormaps will not be installed until the user presses a pointer button on the target window.

f.cut string (OBSOLETE --- use a clipboard client)

This function places the specified string (followed by a newline character) into the root window property CUT_BUFFER0.

f.cutfile (OBSOLETE --- use a clipboard client)

This function reads the file indicated by the contents of the CUT_BUFFER0 window property and replaces the cut buffer.

f.deiconify

This function deiconifies the selected window. If the window is not an icon, this function does nothing.

f.delete

This function sends the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message to the selected window if the client application has requested it through the WM_PROTOCOLS window property. The application is supposed to respond to the message by removing the window. If the window has not requested WM_DELETE_WINDOW messages, the keyboard bell will be rung indicating that the user should choose an alternative method. Note this is very different from f.destroy. The intent here is to delete a single window, not necessarily the entire application.

f.deletedoor

This function deletes a door.

f.deltastop

This function allows a user-defined function to be aborted if the pointer has been moved more than MoveDelta pixels. See the example definition given for Function "move-or-lower" at the beginning of the section.

f.destroy

This function instructs the X server to close the display connection of the client that created the selected window. This should only be used as a last resort for shutting down runaway clients. See also f.delete.

This action sometimes leaves a runaway process that consumes CPU cycles; you should always try to use the applications own quit function, rather than this one.

f.downiconmgr

This function warps the pointer to the next row in the current icon manger, wrapping to the beginning of the next column if necessary.

f.enterdoor

This function activates this door. Typically one binds:

Button1 = : door : f.enterdoor
Button2 = : door : f.enterdoor
Button3 = : door : f.enterdoor

f.exec string

This function passes the argument string to /bin/sh for execution. In multiscreen mode, if string starts a new X client without giving a display argument, the client will appear on the screen from which this function was invoked.

f.file string (OBSOLETE --- use a clipboard client)

This function assumes string is a file name. This file is read into the window server's cut buffer.

f.focus

This function toggles the keyboard focus of the server to the selected window, changing the focus rule from pointer-driven if necessary. If the selected window already was focused, this function executes an f.unfocus.

f.forcemove

This function is like f.move except that it ignores the DontMoveOff variable.

f.forwiconmgr

This function warps the pointer to the next column in the current icon manager, wrapping to the beginning of the next row if necessary.

f.fullzoom

This function resizes the selected window to the full size of the display or else restores the original size if the window was already zoomed.

f.function string

This function executes the user-defined function whose name is specified by the argument string.

f.hbzoom

This function is a synonym for f.bottomzoom.

f.hidedesktopdisplay

This function unmaps the desktop display.

f.hideiconmgr

This function unmaps the current icon manager when selected from a client window, and unmaps all icon managers when selected from the root window.

f.horizoom

This variable is similar to the f.zoom function except that the selected window is resized to the full width of the display.

f.htzoom

This function is a synonym for f.topzoom.

f.hzoom

This function is a synonym for f.horizoom.

f.iconify

This function iconifies or deiconifies the selected window or icon, respectively.

f.identify

This function displays a summary of the name and geometry of the selected window. Clicking the pointer or pressing a key in the window will dismiss it. If the function is invoked on a desktop representation of a window, the real window which is represented will be identified.

f.lefticonmgr

This function similar to f.backiconmgr except that wrapping does not change rows.

f.leftzoom

This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function but causes the selected window is only resized to the left half of the display.

f.lower

This function lowers the selected window.

f.maximize

This function maximizes the selected window. In contrast to f.fullzoom the top-left pixel of the client window is placed to the top-left of the screen, possibly leaving the titlebar and the frame window borders out of the visible screen area.

f.menu string

This function invokes the menu specified by the argument string. Cascaded menus may be built by nesting calls to f.menu.

f.move

This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the window itself if the OpaqueMove variable is set) until the invoking pointer button is released, at which time the window is raised (subject to RaiseOnStart, MoveDelta, and NoRaiseOnMove). Double clicking within the number of milliseconds given by ConstrainedMoveTime warps the pointer to the center of the window and constrains the move horizontally or vertically, depending on pointer movement. To abort the move, press another button before releasing the invoking button.

f.movescreen

Moves a window (or possibly the real screen) inside the desktop display. To abort the move, press another button before releasing the invoking button. By default, the bindings using the desktop context are defined as:

Button1 = : desktop : f.movescreen
Button2 = : desktop : f.movescreen

This is useful if you want to reset the default keyboard and pointer bindings via NoDefaultMouseOrKeyboardBindings and use some of your own for the virtual desktop, e.g.:

NoDefaultMouseOrKeyboardBindings
Button1 = : desktop : f.movescreen
Button2 = : desktop : f.warp
Button3 = : desktop : f.iconify

This function is not useful under any context other than "desktop".

f.nail

This function nails or unnails the selected window onto the real screen; the current value of this property is toggled on the window.

f.nailedabove

This function toggles the setting of the NailedAbove variable.

f.namedoor

This function, bound to the door context, pastes a name from CUT_BUFFER0 into the selected door (see the BINDINGS section for details).

f.newdoor

This function creates a new door with it's destination and name set to the real screen's current position in the virtual desktop.

f.nexticonmgr

This function warps the pointer to the next icon manager containing any windows on the current or any succeeding screen.

f.nop

This function does nothing and is typically used with the DefaultFunction or WindowFunction variables or to introduce blank lines in menus.

f.panelmove geomstring

This function moves the selected window to the location denoted by the extended geometry specification geomstring as described in IconManagerGeometry. Geometry aliases left, right, top, bottom (e.g. "left@pointer", "top@1", etc.) denote the window is to be moved and aligned to the left, right, top or bottom edge on the specified target panel. A relative shift by (X,Y) of the selected window can be specified by "[01]x[01]+X+Y@P" analogously to the description in f.panelzoom below.

f.panelzoom geomstring

This function enlarges the selected window as denoted by the extended geometry specification geomstring described in IconManagerGeometry. Accepted are left, right, top, bottom, vertical, horizontal, full and maximize as geometry aliases in order to perform a zoom operation analogous to f.leftzoom, ..., f.maximize but restricted to the target panel specified by @P of geomstring.

The non-aliased geometry string is used to denote relative zoom by (X,Y) pixels and has the form "[01]x[01]+X+Y@P", i.e. W, H having values 0 or 1 denoting if the X or Y component (or both) is to be considered in the following zoom operation. If X (or Y) is positive, the right (or bottom) edge of the selected window is moved that many pixels to the right (or bottom). If X (or Y) is negative, the left (or top) edge of the selected window is moved that many pixels to the left (or top) accordingly. If X (or Y) is zero, then the corresponding window edge, left or right (top or bottom) depending on the '-' or '+' of X (or Y), is taken to the appropriate panel edge. The special value "-0-0" of geomstring can be used to restore the original window size and location after repeated execution of the geometry-based zooming. Analogously "+0+0" overwrites the saved original size/location with the current values of the window size and location. (For values e.g. "0x0+0+0@next" the window is only moved to the specified panel without changing its size, keeping its relative location as on the source panel if possible.)

f.panup N

f.pandown N

f.panleft N

f.panright N

These functions move the real screen by N% of the screen dimension in the indicated direction. These are ideally bound to the cursor keys:

"Up"    = : root : f.panup    "100"
"Down"  = : root : f.pandown  "100"
"Left"  = : root : f.panleft  "100"
"Right" = : root : f.panright "100"

f.playsound soundfile

This function plays the specified sound at SoundVolume volume. The soundfile must be the full pathname of the sound file. This is a rather "expensive" function compared to that provided by the Sounds variable, and should be avoided.

f.previconmgr

This function warps the pointer to the previous icon manager containing any windows on the current or preceding screens.

f.quit

This function causes vtwm to restore the window's borders and exit. If vtwm is the last client invoked from xdm, this will result in a server reset, and the user's session will be logged out.

Users who stay logged in for long periods (days or weeks), or who like to change window managers, or experiment with them, may find it desirable to use a relatively simple application, such as xbiff(1), as the last application in their .xinitrc or .xsession file, letting the window manager start earlier, and run in the background. This allows changing window managers without logging out, and also makes it much less likely that a session will be abruptly terminated by a bug in a complex program like a window manager. The one drawback to this approach is that f.quit then no longer terminates the session: you need to use f.delete or f.destroy on that last application to logout.

f.raise

This function raises the selected window.

f.raiselower

This function raises the selected window to the top of the stacking order if it is occluded by any windows, otherwise the window will be lowered.

f.refresh

This function causes all windows to be refreshed.

f.resetdesktop

This function moves the real display to (0,0)

f.resize

This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the window itself if the OpaqueResize variable is set) after crossing a border (or by setting AutoRelativeResize) until the invoking pointer button is released, at which time the window is raised (subject to RaiseOnStart, MoveDelta, and NoRaiseOnResize). To abort the resize, press another button before releasing the invoking button.

f.restart

This function kills and restarts vtwm. See also f.startwm.

f.righticonmgr

This function is similar to f.nexticonmgr except that wrapping does not change rows.

f.rightzoom

This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except that the selected window is only resized to the right half of the display.

f.ring

Selects a window and adds it to the WindowRing list, or removes it if it was already in the ring. This command makes f.warpring much more useful, by making its configuration dynamic.

f.saveyourself

This function sends a WM_SAVEYOURSELF message to the selected window if it has requested the message in its WM_PROTOCOLS window property. Clients that accept this message are supposed to checkpoint all state associated with the window and update the WM_COMMAND property as specified in the ICCCM. If the window has not requested this message, the keyboard bell will be rung.

f.separator

Valid only in menus. The effect is to add a line separator between the previous and the following entry. The name selector part in the menu is not used (but must be present).

f.setrealscreen geomstr

This function sets the real screen to the virtual coordinates specified. The geomstr is a quoted string containing a standard geometry specification.

f.showdesktopdisplay

This function maps the desktop display.

f.showiconmgr

This function maps the current icon manager when selected from a client window, and maps all icon managers when selected from the root window.

f.sloppyfocus

This function sets the SloppyFocus state variable to TRUE so entering the sloppy mode of the vtwm client focusing policy. Executing f.unfocus or f.focus set this variable to FALSE, restoring the "focus strictly follows mouse" policy, or assigning focus to some client explicitly. Executing f.sloppyfocus on a root window revokes focus from the client.

f.snap

This function snaps the real screen to a grid defined on virtual space with PanDistanceX and PanDistanceY increments.

f.snaprealscreen

This function toggles the setting of SnapRealScreen.

f.snugdesktop

moves the display to try to fit all partially visible windows completely on the screen.

f.snugwindow

moves the display to try to fit the selected window completely on the screen

f.sorticonmgr

This function sorts the entries in the current icon manager alphabetically. See the variable SortIconManager.

f.sounds

This function toggles the playing of sounds. It's a "mute" function.

f.squeezecenter

f.squeezeleft

f.squeezeright

Selects a window and makes its title appear as though you had configured it as

SqueezeTitle    center    0    0

or

SqueezeTitle    left      0    0

or

SqueezeTitle    right     0    0

respectively. These make squeezed titles much more useful because their configuration is dynamic.

f.startwm commandline

This function kills vtwm, and starts up the window manager as specified by commandline. A trailing ampersand and/or environment variables should not be used. See also f.restart.

f.staticiconpositions

This function toggles the setting of StaticIconPositions.

f.stick

This function is a synonym for f.nail.

f.stickyabove

This function is synonymous with the f.nailedabove function.

f.stricticonmgr

This function toggles the setting of StrictIconManager.

f.title

This function provides a centered, unselectable item in a menu definition. It should not be used in any other context.

f.topzoom

This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except that the selected window is only resized to the top half of the display.

f.twmrc

Synonymous with f.restart. Historically, this function was intended to cause the startup customization file to be re-read.

f.unbindbuttons

f.unbindkeys

These functions disable vtwm's pointer or keyboard bindings for the selected window, allowing events to pass directly to the application. These are useful, for example, when running another window manager within Xnest or Xvnc.

f.unfocus

This function resets the focus back to pointer-driven. This should be used when a focused window is no longer desired.

f.upiconmgr

This function warps the pointer to the previous row in the current icon manager, wrapping to the last row in the same column if necessary.

f.version

This function causes the vtwm version window to be displayed. This window will be displayed until a pointer button is pressed or the pointer is moved from one window to another.

f.virtualgeometries

This function toggles the setting of NotVirtualGeometries.

f.vlzoom

This function is a synonym for f.leftzoom.

f.vrzoom

This function is a synonym for f.rightzoom.

f.warp

Warp the cursor to the selected window. This is only useful if the window is selected via the icon manager.

f.warpclassnext string

f.warpclassprev string

These functions warp the pointer to the next or previous window in the specified class indicated by the argument string. If string is "VTWM", only icon managers, doors, and the Virtual Desktop window are considered. If string empty (i.e., ""), the class of the window with focus is used. If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.

f.warpring string

This function warps the pointer to the next or previous window (as indicated by the argument string, which may be "next" or "prev") specified in the WindowRing variable. If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.

f.warpsnug

This function toggles the setting of WarpSnug.

f.warpto string

This function warps the pointer to the window which has a name or class that matches string. The string may be a VTWM-style wildcard, but not a regular expression (see the WILDCARDS section for details). If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the WarpUnmapped variable is set, or else ignored.

f.warptoiconmgr string

This function warps the pointer to the icon manager entry associated with the window containing the pointer in the icon manager specified by the argument string. If string is empty (i.e., ""), the current icon manager is chosen. If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.

f.warptonewest

This function warps the pointer to the most recently created window. If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.

f.warptoscreen string

This function warps the pointer to the screen specified by the argument string. String may be a number (e.g., "0" or "1"), the word "next" (indicating the current screen plus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens), the word "back" (indicating the current screen minus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens), or the word "prev" (indicating the last screen visited.

f.warpvisible

This function toggles the setting of WarpVisible.

f.winrefresh

This function is similar to the f.refresh function except that only the selected window is refreshed.

f.zoom

This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, except that the only the height of the selected window is changed.

f.zoomzoom

This function makes a zoom outline from a random place to another random place (see the Zoom and ZoomZoom variables). It's silly, but can be used as a visual bell in place of f.beep. See also the LessRandomZoomZoom variable.

MENUS

Functions may be grouped and interactively selected using pop-up (when bound to a pointer button) or pull-down (when associated with a titlebar button) menus. Each menu specification contains the name of the menu as it will be referred to by f.menu, optional default foreground and background colors, the list of item names and the functions they should invoke, and optional foreground and background colors for individual items:

Menu    "menuname"    [ ("deffore":"defback") ]
{
    string1    [ ("fore1":"back1")]    function1
    string2    [ ("fore2":"back2")]    function2
      ...
    stringN    [ ("foreN":"backN")]    functionN
}
    

The menuname is case-sensitive. The optional deffore and defback arguments specify the foreground and background colors used on a color display to highlight menu entries. The string portion of each menu entry will be the text which will appear in the menu. The optional fore and back arguments specify the foreground and background colors of the menu entry when the pointer is not in the entry. These colors will only be used on a color display. The default is to use the colors specified by the MenuForeground and MenuBackground variables. The function portion of the menu entry is one of the functions, including any user-defined functions, or additional menus.

There is a special menu named VTWM Windows which contains the names of all of the client and vtwm-supplied windows. Selecting an entry will cause the WindowFunction to be executed on that window. If WindowFunction hasn't been set, the window will be deiconified and raised. This menu uses the same colors as the little windows in the panner. This feature still honors the traditional TwmWindows menu name of yore.  

ICONS

An icon manager is a window that contains names of selected or all windows currently on the display. In addition to the window name, a small button using the default iconify symbol will be displayed to the left of the name when the window is iconified. By default, clicking on an entry in the icon manager performs f.iconify. To change the actions taken in the icon manager, use the iconmgr context when specifying button and keyboard bindings.

Moving the pointer into the icon manager also directs keyboard focus to the indicated window when NoIconManagerFocus is not set (setting the focus explicitly or else sending synthetic events if NoTitleFocus is set). Using the f.upiconmgr, f.downiconmgr f.lefticonmgr, and f.righticonmgr functions, the input focus can be changed between windows directly from the keyboard.  

IMAGE AND AUDIO FORMATS

:darrow             scaled in any, n/a for highlight
:delete / :xlogo    centered in any drawable
:dot / :iconify     centered in any drawable
:menu               scaled in any drawable
:rarrow             scaled in any, n/a for highlight
:resize             scaled in any drawable

:xpm:bar            scaled in any drawable
:xpm:box            scaled in any drawable
:xpm:darrow         scaled in any, n/a for highlight
:xpm:dot            centered in any drawable
:xpm:lines          scaled in any drawable
:xpm:menu           scaled in any drawable
:xpm:raisedbox      scaled, for highlight only
:xpm:raisedlines    scaled, for highlight only
:xpm:rarrow         scaled in any, n/a for highlight
:xpm:resize         scaled in any drawable
:xpm:sunkenbox      scaled, for highlight only
:xpm:sunkenlines    scaled, for highlight only
:xpm:zoom           scaled in any drawable

vtwm also supports a single image file format by default, the X Window System bitmap (files typically carrying an extension of ".xbm"), for two-color images. However, when built with the XPM library, vtwm will also support the X Window System pixmap (files typically carrying an extension of ".xpm"), for full-color images.

All image types and sources can be freely mixed within the variables that use them, given the behavior listed above, and with the following additional exceptions: The Icons and UnknownIcon variables don't recognize the built-in images, the RealScreenPixmap, TitleHighlight, and VirtualBackgroundPixmap entries of the Pixmaps variable don't recognize the built-in images, only titlebar buttons can accomodate external images that would be larger than the default space allocated for them (in any other case, the image will be cropped to fit), and only the RealScreenPixmap, TitleHighlight, and VirtualBackgroundPixmap entries of the Pixmaps variable will tile small images into the space allocated for them.

The icon manager drawable is hard-coded to 11x11 pixels, the menu drawable is MenuFont pixels square, and titlebar buttons are

(TitleFont - (2 * ButtonIndent))

(titlebar height - (2 * FramePadding) - 2)

The root window can be decorated with whatever image files that are supported by X Window System utilities and applications (xloadimage(1), xsetroot(1), xv(1), etc.).

If vtwm is built with sound support, several audio file formats are supported, not by vtwm per se, but by the rplayd(8) daemon. Currently, the AU, AIFF, WAV, and VOC formats are natively supported, but see also rplay.helpers(5).  

WILDCARDS

vtwm can support a richer method of character substitution, called regular expressions, or "RE"s. If vtwm is built with REs, many more "wildcard" rules are added. A description of REs is beyond the scope of this document; see the re_format(7) or egrep(1) man pages.

vtwm distinguishes REs from strings by enclosing them in forward slashes ('/'). The two may be freely mixed; changing the example in the VARIABLES section to:

AutoRaise
{
    "emacs"
    "VTWM*"
    /x.*clock/    # was "x*clock"
    "Xmh"
    "XTerm"
}
    

SIGNALS

Xft NOTES

"Bitstream Vera Sans:medium:roman:size=10:antialias=true"

with weight being one of light, medium, demibold, bold, black; slant one of roman, italic, oblique; and size being size, pixelsize. Generic Xft fonts, e.g. at size 10 points, can be given by "monospace-10", "sans-10", "serif-10". For further reading, see "The Xft font library: architecture and users guide" by Keith Packard. (Xft truetype font rendering can be enabled with the EnableXftFontRenderer per-screen .vtwmrc configuration variable.)  

BUGS

Double clicking very fast to get the constrained move function will sometimes cause the window to move, even though the pointer is not moved.

It is possible to "lose" windows in the virtual desktop by placing them in a large desktop area, then shrinking the desktop so as to remove them from view. They are still there, of course, but are unreachable until the desktop is grown sufficiently large again.

See the BUGS file in the distribution for others.  

FILES

Searched for in the order shown:

$HOME/.vtwmrc.<screen number>
$HOME/.vtwmrc
$VTWMDIR/twm/system.vtwmrc
$HOME/.twmrc.<screen number>
$HOME/.twmrc
$VTWMDIR/twm/system.twmrc
    

$HOME/vtwm.pid

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

DISPLAY

This variable is used to determine which X server to use. It is also set during f.exec so that programs come up on the proper screen.

HOME

This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with a tilde and for locating the vtwm startup file.

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT

See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.  

AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Index

NAME

SYNTAX

DESCRIPTION

THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP

OPTIONS

CUSTOMIZATION

M4 PREPROCESSING

VARIABLES

SPECIAL VARIABLES

BINDINGS

MENUS

ICONS

IMAGE AND AUDIO FORMATS

WILDCARDS

SIGNALS

Xft NOTES

BUGS

FILES

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT

AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS